The federal government is aiming to settle 25,000 refugees by the end of February, with about two-thirds expected to be government-assisted.

About 7,000 Syrian refugees have already settled in Ontario since Dec. 10 and on Monday the premier announced details of some of the funding committed to helping them.

The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is receiving about $343,000 for trauma and mental-health training for front-line workers as well as a public education campaign, and COSTI Immigrant Services is receiving $283,000 to deliver workshops and orientation resources to refugees.

That money is part of the $8.5 million Ontario pledged over 2 1/2 years to support refugees.

Wynne says the refugee resettlement has "been a remarkable success story," though she admits there have been "some timing issues."

"We knew that a resettlement of this scale would not be without its challenges," Wynne said Monday. "We can be confident that our combined efforts are working, now, maybe not quite as quickly or as seamlessly as we would like in every single case. There will always be situations where there are refinements that are needed, but we are rising to the occasion."

The influx of Syrian refugee arrivals prompted agencies in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa to request a break in the action to hire extra staff and find permanent homes for those who have already arrived before any more are cleared to come to Canada.

Wynne suggested last month that government-assisted refugees who were still in temporary housing at hotels could be paired with private sponsors. But federal Immigration Minister John McCallum said while the idea made sense on its surface, there were too many flaws in the proposal.

As of Feb. 4, 16,565 Syrians have arrived in Canada since Nov. 4. Of that, 9,753 were government assisted, 5,639 privately sponsored and 1,173 as part of a program that blends the two.

Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

VANCOUVER - A 51-year-old man has been arrested in the 2014 death of a two-year-old girl and North Vancouver Mounties say it's believe she was poisoned by snake venom.
Police say Henry Thomas had the girl in his care on May 18, 2014, and returned her to her mother that day in North Vancouver.
Source

MEXICO CITY - Authorities say three gunmen have shot to death seven people at a house in the Mexican resort city of Cancun, in an apparent dispute between street-level drug dealers. Cancun is located in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo.
Source

VICTORIA -- A man who illegally shot a moose in British Columbia's southern Interior has been fined $10,000 after leaving the animal to suffer before it died.
The B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it began an investigation in November 2017 after the man from Surrey, B.C.
Source

QUEBEC - The head of the Quebec City mosque where six men were killed in a shooting almost two years ago wants the province to tighten up controls over who has access to firearms. In a letter to Premier Francois Legault, Boufeldja Benabdallah identifies a weakness when it comes to verifying people who have mental health problems.
Source

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - A drunk driver who killed RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett in a crash has been granted limited day parole to attend alcohol abuse treatment. Kenneth Fenton was handed a five-year, six-month prison sentence in July 2017 and his first parole hearing was held today at a medium-security prison in Abbotsford, B.C.
Source

Ice is melting in an unexpected region of Greenland at a rate that is unprecedented in the past century, according to a study published Monday, which could lead to rising sea levels and increasingly wild weather on the East Coast.
Source

The European Union has sanctioned the heads of Russia's military intelligence and two of their officers for poisoning a former Russian double agent in Britain last year, a decision Moscow dismissed as groundless.
The EU travel bans and asset freezes issued Monday are against two men Britain has named as Russia intelligence officers Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and accused of attempting to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Source

Welcome to The National Today newsletter, which takes a closer look at what's happening around some of the day's most notable stories. Sign up here and it will be delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday. Source

A Thunder Bay, Ont., man will stand trial for second degree murder in the death of an Indigenous woman who was hit by a trailer hitch in January 2017.
Brayden Bushby was initially charged with aggravated assault, accused of throwing a metal trailer hitch from a moving vehicle which struck 34-year-old Barbara Kentner.
Source

MEXICO CITY -- The death toll in a massive fire at an illegally tapped pipeline in Mexico rose to 89 Monday as more of the injured have died at hospitals. Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said 51 victims severely burned in the fire were still in hospitals, two of them in Galveston, Texas.
Source